Just finished my last long run before the Kaiser Half Marathon (next Sunday) and things look to be in great shape! This was a 12 miler, with a plan of 9 miles slow then the last 3 at race pace. It looked like a wet morning, and 20 minutes before the start, it was really pouring down. My running mate called and bailed out, mumbling about "not being English.... treadmills....etc". Wimp - I went anyway.
First 5 miles were slow and steady as planned, at an average pace of 9:20. Then I got to a stretch of short, rolling hills, on a nice dirt trail so decided to sprint up and jog easy down. That got through miles 6,7 & 8 at an average of 8:24. Then it was time for the 3 miles at race pace (8:00) so rattled off a couple at 7:55 and then decided to treat mile 11 like the last mile of a race and went for it. Did it in 7:19, with the last 100 yds flat out. Then an easy cool down mile to bring me home at 12.09 miles. Average pace of 8:36, and feeling really good! And the rain held off the whole time.
According to my many, many formulae and charts to analyse running performance, this was my best performance ever. If I compare it to my last half marathon (1:51:50), it was only 4 seconds/mile slower pace (and remember, this was an easy, long training run) and my average heart rate was 18 beats lower! Obviously I've improved a lot over the last 4 months (64 runs and 445 miles) so the race next week should be quite a bit faster than 1:51:50 (unless the course and/or weather is terrible, or I do something really dumb). Various websites predict my time at around 1:44-1:46, based on recent times for shorter distances.
I have set a series of goals
1) I MUST beat my current PR of 1:51:50 (pace 8:32)
2) I SHOULD knock at least 5 minutes off - 1:46:50 (pace 8:10)
3) I MIGHT go under 1:45 (pace 8:00)
4) I PROBABLY WON'T go under 1:44 (pace 7:56)
5) I AM REALLY UNLIKELY TO go under 1:40 (pace 7:38)
I have been training and will be pacing for goal 3 in this race. Plan for the year is #5
If things go really well, and I miraculously hit #5 next weekend I can take the rest of the year off (which might please Liz....)
2 comments:
Hi Alan
I am planning on running the Kaiser - havent registered though - and this reflects in my lack of training runs. just the occasional 'long' 5 mile run , though i did do a 10 last week.
i ran a bit in Bangalore too. well see you there.
vivek - cool! i'll look out for you at thr start. i'll probably be there round about 7 - alan
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